About 50% of the people in the U.S. require prescription eyewear. The vast majority of these people wear conventional eyeglasses and even the people who wear contact lenses will wear eyeglasses from time to time. For these people, the solutions for addressing their sunglasses needs are not satisfactory.
One solution is to wear photo-gray lenses in their glasses. This solution is reasonably good at providing an "all-in-one" solution. However, these lenses usually take a while to change plus they are not as stylish as most sunglasses, and can be very heavy as the lenses must be made of glass. Another possible solution is to maintain two pairs of glasses, one with regular lenses and one with tinted lenses. This solution is attractive and feasible if the individual can afford both pairs and wear the sunglasses for extended periods, thus avoiding frequent switching of glasses.
Yet another solution is to wear a pair of tinted goggles over the prescription glasses. These are functional, but awkward and not very stylish. The final alternative is the conventional clip-on which is generally flimsy and not very stylish, standing out obviously as clip-ons. The clip-ons are not very versatile with each type of clip-on fitting only a limited set of eyeglass frames. Even if a person is able to find a clip-on that fits, the attachment is likely to be unreliable and lost or damaged in a strenuous activity such as snow skiing.
As a consequence, it is the object of this invention to provide to those who wear conventional eyeglasses an improved removable sunglasses design that is 1) easily attached and detached to and from a large variety of eyeglass frames; 2) securely mounted with respect to the frames; 3) comparable to conventional sunglasses in fashion and attractiveness; 4) simple and economical to manufacture; and 5) designed for reliability with a minimum number of parts with no conventional clips, springs, screws, or moving parts.